Shadow home secretary calling for "exceptional treatment" in investigating
sudden death of Alexander Perepilichnyy who died while trying to expose
Russian crime lords

The investigation in to the death of a second Russian dissident on Britain’s streets should be upgraded to a public inquiry in the wake of the Alexander Litvinenko revelations, the shadow home secretary has said.

Police ruled out foul play at the time but serious concerns of an assassination have been raised after a preliminary inquest hearing was told the tycoon could have been poisoned by a lethal rare plant sometimes used by Russian and Chinese hitmen.

The businessman fled to the UK and revealed "explosive" information in an investigation into an £140 million Russian money laundering scheme in Swiss bank accounts when he died.

Alexander Litvinenko pictured before his death at University College Hospital in central London

He was also being sued at the time of his death by a Moscow consultancy firm run by Dmitri Kovtun, one of the two men suspected of poisoning former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko during a meeting in London in 2006.

Retired High Court judge Sir Robert Owen had the inquest in to Mr Litvinenko upgraded to a public inquiry so he could fully investigate claims that he was murdered on orders of the Kremlin.

It includes claims he was murdered for exposing state-sponsored corruption.

It emerged last year that traces of a compound that could have come from the highly toxic plant Gelsemium elegens were found in Mr Perepilichnyy’s stomach.

Toxic plant Gelsemium elegens

Just a few drops of the toxin in the bloodstream can trigger cardiac arrest, making it appear that the victim has suffered a heart attack.

Toxicology tests are continuing and senior coroner for Surrey Richard Travers said he was "determined" to proceed with the full inquest on February 29.

Dmitry Kovtun Photo: AP

Bill Browder, chief executive of the London-based Hermitage Fund, said: “We have had real problems over the death of Alexander Perepilichnyy over a lack of police cooperation.

“The police have stated on the one hand there is nothing suspicious and on the other hand they have withheld a number of documents claiming Public Interest Immunity which means there are a number of issues of national interest involved.

“If that is the case there is obviously something suspicious going on.

“Given the damning circumstantial evidence and his role in exposing Russian government-sponsored organised crime there needs to be a robust inquest into his death.

“My instinct is they [the British Government] is trying to avoid a Litvinenko style spectacle because they are subordinating criminal justice to diplomatic appeasement.”